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Fourth-year student Osvaldo Navarro (left), fourth-year student Gilbert Garcia and third-year stu

Almost 7,000 UCLA fans descended upon Pauley Pavilion in a surge of blue and gold last night, wearing their pride on their chests and faces for the NCAA Championship game, while many others watched from lounges and dorm rooms across the Hill.

Beneath 11 national championship banners, students gathered in Pauley to watch the game on six large screens, used to bring Indianapolis to Westwood.

From the noise of the crowd, the game almost seemed as if it were played at home.

Fans threw up index fingers during free throws and 8-clapped as the game began, showing their support for a team 2,000 miles away.

On the Hill, other students congregated in dorms and lounges to show their support.

Some gathered in a lounge of the residential plaza Delta Terrace, cheering after every Bruin shot, energetically calling to the players and groaning in response to each Florida point.

“I really want us to win, but we can have good days and bad days,” said Scott Lafey, a first-year life sciences student, in the first few minutes of the game. “If we win, I’ll just be really excited and jump around.”

But in the final seconds of the first half, with the Bruins down 36-25, some of the students already had their heads buried in their hands.

Two didn’t. Within the sea of faces at Pauley, identical twins and first-year undeclared and business economics students Sean and Armon Rohani chose to sport orange and royal blue Florida gear.

Amid jeers, boos and expletives, the twins sat among a thin buffer of friends, flushed but unfazed.

When asked why, Sean Rohani answered, “To respect my dad.”

The twins’ father, who attended the University of Florida, “raised us to be Gators,” Sean said.

“Florida’s going to win, but we still want UCLA to do well,” Sean Rohani said.

But many loyal Bruins still had hope for their team to come back. “I still have faith because we’re a second-half team. (Coach Ben) Howland knows how to get us out of these deficits – just look at the Gonzaga game,” Lafey said.

The second half began with this renewed hope for many students. But as the game progressed, the fans’ efforts throughout campus could not save the Bruins. Florida’s lead sapped much of the energy the crowd had shown earlier, and the attitudes of the fans began to change.

Shouting and cheers switched to the white noise of chatter in Pauley Pavilion, interceded by the periodic celebration that followed dunks or 3-pointers.

Students in the Delta Terrace lounge let out groans of despair mixed with superstitious warnings not to jinx the players.

With the score now at 45-27 in favor of the Gators, the Delta Terrace lounge was quiet, the silence accompanying grim expressions and buried heads.

“I just feel angry and disappointed right now,” said Shyaam Subramanian, a first-year undeclared student. “I thought we were going to celebrate tonight.”

In the last few minutes of the game, the students angrily yelled at the screen. Some yelled at the Gators, others at the Bruins.

Many began exiting Pauley with several minutes left on the clock, and diminishing hope subdued the already dejected crowd even further.

When no one cheered after a 3-pointer by the Bruins in the final minutes, defeat was clear. Not a minute after the completion of the game, the television with its screaming Gator fans was turned off and the lounge was emptied.

“It’s been a good run,” Subramanian said. “It’s just heartbreaking that they’d lose now, when they got this far.”

Stephen Gallaher, a first-year material engineering student, was angry at the game’s end, leaving the lounge to play basketball to work out his frustrations.

“But we have something to look forward to next year,” he said.